Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 23/Aug/2017]

It is in your word that I place my complete hope. (Psalm 119:147)

Last Sunday Lesley bravely shared her disappointments about the proposed sale of her house and her anxieties for her health and future tests. Yet she was able to witness how promises from God’s word gave her trust in Him and amazing peace.

Some years ago I was sitting in a church where the minister was holding up his wife’s engagement ring as an illustration of what he was saying. He joked that we would be unable to see the diamond as it was so small, but at that moment I was able to see it very clearly. A ray of sunshine from a window caught a facet of the stone and bounced from facet to facet, put there by the diamond cutter, until the light flashed to me near the back of the church.

That experience has always spoken to me about how God’s word is multi-faceted and speaks to us in different ways at different times according to our needs at that time. Sometimes I read a verse I have read many times before and yet it seems to be saying something different. When this happens I believe that God is showing us something new from the storehouse of His word that is right for us at that moment even by using a different translation.

I could give a number of examples of this in my own life but here are two. On one occasion at work I had a problem with a colleague. At lunchtime I took my lunch to a local park and read these words at random from a pocket Good News Bible in Psalm 55. “If it were an enemy that mocked me, I could endure it … but it is you my companion, my colleague and close friend.” By using the word “colleague” in that Bible version God was telling me that He understood how I felt in that situation and gave me strength.

Also, when I first started having problems with my back and legs four years ago I kept falling to the ground. At the same time I read these words from Habakkuk 3:16 in the New Living Translation. “My legs gave way beneath me.” How specific God is at the time He speaks to us. My legs really did give way and when I looked at other versions they only spoke of trembling knees. A few verses later He promised to be my strength.

As we read the Bible may we see flashes of light as He speaks to us in our needs. May we trust Him for the future and find, as Lesley has, the amazing peace that comes from God our Father.

“Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105)

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 13/Aug/2017]

A few weeks ago, Neil Robinson spoke about tearing up the rule book, and one of his comments reminded me about an illustration that Nicky Gumbel used in one of his daily on-line meditations. He described a Thomas the Tank Engine cartoon that pictures Thomas on his side, having fallen off the train tracks. He is shouting, ‘I’m free! I’m free at last. I’ve escaped from the rails and I’m free!’ However, as we all know, a train that has gone off the rails has a somewhat limited future.

Near to my house is a footpath that I used on a daily basis to access Gatwick station. The footpath is narrow and winding; you cannot see one end from the other, and for a time it was unlit. It passes under the M23 Spur, between an access road to a staff car park and the London to Brighton railway which at that point is four tracks wide. Both the car park and railway have security fences – for the car park user the only way out is the way they came in, whilst Thomas’s successors are constrained by the rigours of rails, signals and timetables.

By contrast, the only fences that the footpath has are those inherited from the adjacent land uses. It is open at both ends; at the northern end the user may choose to go towards the west, north or east whilst to the south the footpath continues towards Crawley, passing through a surprisingly idyllic area with a babbling brook and frolicking fish just yards from the end of the runway.

At 5:45 on a winter morning, setting out on that path felt depressing, confined by fences not of my making, but as I approached the overpass I could recognise that only my narrow path offered liberty. I could join those commuters in their temporary warmth, or keep on walking. Remember the words of Jesus – “ small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” and “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”; (Matthew ch7 v13-14, Luke ch13 v24) – and be encouraged.
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 13/Jun/2017]

I remember John Bowden telling me how God looked after him and Dorothy when they were driving in Spain. The car had broken down and after they prayed some young men arrived in a car, sorted out the problem and drove off. They drove away in the same direction from which they had come and so John was convinced they were angels sent by God.

I was recently driving to the coast in Australia and I was thinking what would happen if I broke down or had a puncture. I remembered John’s story but didn’t dwell on the thought. On arrival we had a lovely sunny walk along a beautiful sandy beach and then back through a water park where children and parents were keeping themselves cool in fountains and jets of water. As we got back to the car, the young man parked next to us met us and pointed out that we had a flat tyre. He offered to change the wheel for us and he and the man parked on the other side of us quickly changed the wheel. They then drove off. However I knew they weren’t angels because angels don’t have wives and children as these men did, but I knew that this was God’s way of helping us as he had done so often in the past.

This was a relatively minor problem, but what about those times when the problem is more serious. A couple of weeks later a massive cyclone hit the northern Queensland coast, causing great damage, floods and devastation. We were only on the edge of the cyclone and not affected very much, and although there was mercifully little loss of life many people lost all that they had.

Tragically a mother and three children from a Christian family were driving home when their car slid into the floods. The eight year old daughter managed to escape and raise the alarm, but local residents were unable to rescue the others. When the police raised the car they said that the mother was a hero. She had tried unsuccessfully to rescue the other children and had died cradling one of them in her arms. How can we reconcile God’s help in such a terrifying situation from the everyday problems we face? I believe that God gave that mother and children strength and comfort as He cradled them in His arms. I pray that he continues to do the same for her husband and the surviving little girl.

There may be times when we face serious or life threatening situations. When I was ill a year ago hospital staff told me that I was fortunate to survive and yet I felt complete peace that my life was in God’s hands. If and when we face those experiences may we feel that Jesus is with us and know that

“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27)

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[This Reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 14/May/2017]

How do you envisage eternity? Perhaps your mind goes to the length of last week’s sermon, or maybe the wait until your next payday.

Picture, if you will, a simple railway station of the type beloved by makers of cowboy movies, a stop on some mid-western prairie or a wayside halt on Australia’s Nullarbor Plain where the track extends uninterrupted for hundreds of miles. Our vantage point gives a good view of the platform and the rails for a short distance either side. To the east, the light of dawn reveals two silver rails stretching beyond our vision whilst to the west the setting sun will give those rails a golden hue as they stretch out of sight.

 
A train arrives; a youth steps down – he seems too young to be travelling alone. There is something familiar about him, but we cannot place it. His backpack is light upon his shoulders and he sets off into the surrounding area with a confident air.
As evening draws in, an old man approaches the station; his step is slow and he walks with a stick. His backpack is heavy but he has a determined manner. Again, we think we recognise him. He gets onto the train and it moves off, disappearing into the sunset.

 
Did you recognise your role in our little scenario?
The rails stretch from eternity past to eternity future, beyond our range of vision, and the train of history pauses only for a day. As Shakespeare might have written – “All the world’s a platform, and all the men and women merely travellers …”.
 
What is in your backpack of experiences and, more importantly, where is your ticket taking you?
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, May 2017]

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” Colossians 1: 21-23

Even when I look at the part of the text which seems to be conditional “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel”, I can take comfort into some other words from Paul, which state that it is God who works in us to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose (Philippians 2:13). Also we are reminded by Zechariah that it is “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6

So, if I were to keep a record on how well I keep to God’s promises in the coming week, I can predict, with better certainty than the political pundits, that I am likely to fall short of the mark. It won’t be the first time that’s happened either.

When Guy Partridge was preaching on Colossians 1 last week, he said we should read the words and be exceedingly joyful. I had never thought of the words in this light before. For someone who is more likely to fall short of the mark than hit it every day of his life, it leaves me in awe of a God who cared so much that I would miss out on eternity with Him, that He chose to pay the price for my sin, clear the slate and reconcile me to Him.

So, on that day as the song goes, “when the saints go marching in, Oh Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in”. And when I march in by His grace, and I behold his glory, rather than cower in fear, the words of this song will prove true:

Boldly I approach your throne,
Blameless now I’m running home
By your blood I come,
Welcomed as your own,
Into the arms of majesty

Let these words be a source of joy and peace as you face the week ahead.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1: 20-21.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 17/Apr/2017]

I hope that Neil Robinson doesn’t mind me carrying on from his article last week as I didn’t get any inspiration for this week’s article until I read his words about the “hows” of creation. I know that many Christians believe that God made the universe and the earth in seven literal days, which is fine. But that for me raises problems that I can’t go into now. Like Neil, I concentrate on “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.

Those words at the beginning of Genesis, I believe describe the whole of God’s creative acts from, dare I say it, the Big Bang and His creation of the universe “out of nothing”, to His later formation of the earth. He then focuses His attention on the earth which at that stage was formless, empty and covered in darkness, so that the following six “days” plus one symbolical day of rest was not a description of the whole of the creation by God but the preparation of the earth for the ultimate creation of us in God’s image. There are a number of suggestions put forward for the “days”. I prefer the suggestion by Professor Wiseman that the “days” were a series of dreams or visions received by the writer of Genesis between the “evening and the morning” of each day.

I can only consider two of the days or dreams which are the first and fourth days. Scientists have suggested that the earth was originally covered by a dense atmosphere, which for us may account for the darkness over the earth. Then over the ages, the first day, the atmosphere thinned in response to God’s command “Let there be light”. The light filtered through the thinning atmosphere so that day and night became apparent although the source of the light was not seen. If we skip to the fourth day we find that source. “Let there be lights”. The atmosphere thinned even more so that the sun, and ultimately the moon and stars became visible. They were not created on the fourth day but had been there all the time as part of God’s creation in Genesis 1:1. It’s just that they now came into view. If so, that explains why there was light on the first day as the light of the sun, otherwise unseen, shone through the darkness.

Then following the creation of man on the sixth day He prepared a paradise in Genesis 2, the Garden of Eden, for us to live in. It’s sad that we lost our home there by our disobedience to the One who created it for us. Praise Him that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and as we have faith in His forgiveness, we shall have a new home in paradise in the new heaven and earth of Revelation 21 and 22. The creations of Genesis and Revelation are for us the beginning and the end.

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